Painting and Sculpture research

Right! As soon as I am able to get my hands on a digital camera, I shall be putting up photos of the life drawing and oil painting. Bear with me! Meanwhile, here's some artists which have interested me.



The Musicians and St John the Baptist with a Ram, both by Caravaggio. I love the artist's use of tone; the contrast between light and dark especially, which makes the figure/s stand out vividly.


A portrait of Mrs. Henrietta Morris and her Son, by George Romney. Again I am taken by the luminosity of the skintones and the use of a solid black in part of the background.


The same sort of thing in this Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci by Botticelli. I like the use of a solid colour in the background to enhance the figure.


Whilst browsing artwork by various artists of the Renaissance period, I came across one particular piece which perspective I found, to be instantly different to the others and interesting to look at. I've always found foreshortening to be tricky..This one's The Lamentation over the Dead Christ by Andrea Mantegna.


This might be the sketch for a painting, or just a sketch on its own..either way, I like the lines and that subtle use of the orangey-red. It depicts the fall of Phaeton by John Runciman.


For this piece, titled Thieves' Punishment by Henry Fuseli, I especially love the variation in tone, the way white is used to highlight and black, to add 'weight' to the figures to the left, giving that look of solidity.


Again, I like the variation in tone for this one, Milo of Crotona, by James Barry. The use of earthly tones gives it a warmer appearance as opposed to the grey/black, and I think the classic, central positioning of everything to be very pleasing to the eye.


A 'cooler' choice of tones this time, in The Blashphemer by William Blake. The lack of 'warmth' in the colours, plus the context of the image, seems to spell DOOM!


Originally, I didn't think much of this image, created with a use of graphite, ink and wash onto paper. The tones in the background are nice, but I thought the figures weren't defined enough. They seemed too 'light' to me, ready to fade away. But then I saw this version:


And whilst the lines are definately more stark, there is a loss of that lovely background from before. Maybe I should attempt a combination of the two! Both pieces are titled Prometheus Bound.